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The Last Bookstore Show? Larry McMurtry downsizes

Booked Up, the famed book city created by Larry McMurtry, is about to significantly decrease its footprint in Archer City, Texas.

In August a public auction will be held on site to release 350,000 books into the wild. The announcement, which was posted on Booked Up’s website, makes it clear that this is less a negative event then an opportunity for many of the books McMurtry has acquired through his long bookselling career to find new homes. Over the years McMurtry has secured the inventory of 26 bookshops and close to 200 personal libraries.

I suspect that since the advent and domination of online bookselling the amount of visitors, especially other booksellers, to Archer City has decreased and much of the material has not circulated at the rate it had in the past.

As McMurtry relates perfectly in his comment on the upcoming sale:

The several hundred thousand books that we are putting in play constitute a kind of anthology of American bookshops past.
So why push them out? Because we believe that in the book world migration is healthy: old pages await new eyes.

By releasing the 350,000 books McMurtry is “flooding into the great river of books that delights and refreshes.”

Booked Up will continue operating and carry an inventory of 150,000 books and remains on the list of places every book lover should visit.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.